Trump lists grievances, appears ready to turn his back on the Iran deal

President Donald Trump addressing the United Nations General Assembly on September 19 in New York City.

source

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

President Donald Trump listed a set of grievances in a press
release on what the White House called its "new strategy for
Iran" early Friday morning, hours before his administration was
expected to announce whether he would decertify the 2015 Iran
nuclear agreement.

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Trump reluctantly certified the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan
of Action twice since he took office in January. He is required
by law to review the deal every 90 days.

Certification is an acknowledgment that Iran is abiding by the
terms of the deal and that the deal supports US interests. He
signaled
in July that he had serious reservations about approving the
agreement a third time and argued that it had been one of the
"worst deals in history." A decision to decertify the deal would
not end the deal outright but would force Congress to decide
whether to renew sanctions on Iran that would violate the
agreement.

"The Iranian regime has displayed a disturbing pattern of
behavior, seeking to exploit loopholes and test the international
community's resolve," the White House statement said, apparently
referring to Iran's continued tests in its ballistic-missile
program. "This behavior cannot be tolerated; the deal must be
strictly enforced."

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"The reckless behavior of the Iranian regime ... poses one of the
most dangerous threats to the interests of the United States and
to regional stability," the statement continued. "The [Obama]
Administration's myopic focus on Iran's nuclear program to the
exclusion of the regime's many other malign activities allowed
Iran's influence in the region to reach a high-water mark.

A man looking at Iranian-made missiles at Holy Defence Museum in Tehran, Iran, in 2015.

source

Reuters

Outside the agreement, however, Iran has continued to provoke the
US by testing ballistic missiles, albeit with lackluster
results, and has been accused of supporting terrorist
organizations like Hezbollah.

Trump therefore
has said Iran has not "lived up to the spirit of their
agreement," which he said in his most recent statement was to
make "positive contributions to 'regional and international peace
and security.'"

World leaders have urged the US president to stay on board with
the deal, which includes several other countries.

"It's imperative that Europe sticks together on this issue,"
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said, according to
Reuters. "We also have to tell the Americans that their behavior
on the Iran issue will drive us Europeans into a common position
with Russia and China against the USA."

In addition to world leaders and scores of
foreign-policy experts who say that certifying the Iran deal
is in the US's best interest, members of Trump's Cabinet have
done the same, departing from Trump on the matter. Both Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis were
pressuring Trump to recertify the agreement, much to Trump's
chagrin,
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

"If we can confirm that Iran is living by the agreement, if we
can determine that this is in our best interest, then clearly we
should stay with it," Mattis told the Senate Armed Services
Committee
earlier this month. "Absent indications to the contrary, it
is something that the president should consider staying with."